Tag Archives: Writing

For your Friday listening pleasure

You probably would have guessed right now that

I’m in a music phase, an eternal phase, more like …

I’m drawn to tunes that sound

dreamy, uplifting, that make you feel like running in

a park filled with autumn leaves and bright blooms.

A light-filled exuberance is what I’m looking for these days!

 

And here’s the latest of my faves:

 

Jonathan Boulet.

Just 21-year-old.

Apparently did all his songs in his tiny garage studio.

Hey Sydney, this is a shout of to you, he is from your state,

if you still don’t know  :)

His debut album drops Dec 4 in Sydney itself,

with the album launch on Dec 3.

 

I’d gladly go to menyibuk if I could, young talents

tend to fascinate me a bit.

As well as music that sounds like this.

:)

 

 

.

I’m currently holing myself up in one of my best friends’

house. Ann has so kindly agreed to house me in her ‘Toh Resort’

while I get through this huge project I need to get done by a certain

time. Sometimes, when I find I cannot push through a mental inertia,

I need to rejig and challenge my brain and senses by escaping

somewhere. In this case I left home for Ann’s warm nurturing.

Don’t get me wrong, home’s warm too … it’s just that

sometimes you need to shake things up.

(In my case I think, perhaps worryingly, that my need for travel

or movement or change is displaying itself in

more ways than one. The can’t -keep-still factor isn’t

very helpful when you need to be doing work)

 

Anyway, Ann provided me with a comfortable room and some wonderful

cider every evening :)

Friends, what would you do without them.

Here’s her and her cider.

We’ve been friends for so long now, she knows even beforehand

whether I’d say a guy was hot or not.

“Ya, saya memang tahu itu lelaki jenis er…kegemaran kamu’,

she hilariously said recently at a screening at Palate Palatte when

I pointed someone out. LOL!

Don’t ask me why she said it in Malay, and why she couldn’t find

a decent translation for ‘the type you go for’.

But yeah.

 

“Hey, help yourself to anything. This is your home too, you know,” she

said yesterday.

Thanks girl, love ya.

xox

To remember …

I like the way life tends to remind you certain things,

at certain times. As it always does, well in my life anyway.

After these few days of …

getting over jetlag,

and then getting sleep deprived again thanks to a certain

Champagne-chugger in New York, …

to getting back into work mode again (and happily so) ..

to worrying about things like money and bookings and bills …

and to start making plans and dates with loved ones and friends ..

ALL OVER AGAIN …

 

 

My friend Debs, who I used to work with and now work with again (!),

today ever so kindly gave me a poster she knew I’d appreciate.

It’s this one below, … and it’s huge!

obey-aung-san-suu-kyi-freedom-to-lead

I love it.  Thank you Debs! xo

I guess it’s one of those little reminders again that tell you

‘oi. stop being so memememememe me me me me okay.’

And just to remember the things that are softer,

smaller,

more quiet,

more true,

more real.

Like what Daw Suu Kyi means to me, I guess.

Kinda slaps you in the face to show you how lucky you

are not to be in the same freaking compound for 14 years.

 

 

In this business, and I guess in many other fields,

it’s so so easy to get all puffed up. You get to talk

to big time politicians, you can get VIP treatment, you

can get bee’s-knees praise for your work, you can get sudden

a sudden wave of flattery from people who used to judge you,

you could get tantalising offers … and then it’s so easy to forget

that

you could so easily be bantai-ed kao kao,  scolded for a crappy piece,

scolding yourself for a crappy piece, be getting ignored by

both politicians and other journos, getting reminded

that no one reads you at all …

You know, these kinds of things.

And so you realise, that these things are fleeting,

and that all you have is strength and confidence in yourself

that you will always try to be the same.

And not have your head puffed up and unable to fit through

the exit.

In that spirit,

I was supposed to put this up ages ago due to a request from

kudapuff aka reza for similarly inspiring poems and all, so

I guess this is a good a time as any.

 

 

.

IF

 

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,

And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;

If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with triumph and disaster

And treat those two imposters just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,

And stoop and build ‘em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on”;

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch;

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run -

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,

And – which is more – you’ll be a Man my son!

–  Rudyard Kipling, written in 1896


 

 

So many good lines, and sometimes my favourites change,

but for now, for obvious reasons (to me at least),

the lines below do it for me.

If you can meet with triumph and disaster

And treat those two imposters just the same

 

 

 

It’s one of those never-gets-old poems. Swoon.

…

Wonder what your favourites are based on the state of your

life at the moment.

IMG_1605

This was the day we drove from Arizona to Texas, stopping by

a Loves gas station and eating our dinner (Subs) for the day.

It was a mellow, mellow day.

xo

Because we must

I’m not going to commentate, extrapolate, pontificate, (Mr

Boon, shoot me now) on the subject below, because I think

they tell their story best.  

TNG_ENDORSE_MONIES

All I can say is that judging by the twitter/retweet response

I’ve been checking on, I got more concerned for The Nut Graph.

I’m just going to say this:

They are really good people and brilliant journos.

A former senior I deeply respect, Debbie Loh is there,

as is Jacqueline Ann Surin.

A lot of talent, and I think, most importantly,

a hella alot of heart. 

Much respect to them.

 

I love reading a lot of their pieces, and I know many people

follow their tweets (Remember the Perak fiasco?)

It’s be a shame to let this one go down.

So please spread the word, folks.

Like, seriously. Consider it a public service

announcement retweet/reblog.

 

Because good things and good people need to

be supported.

xo

For the last time

 

I know I’ve been a right pain when it comes to blogs, always shifting, moving,

changing my mind.

In truth, for a while when I had my name ‘out’ there, I freaked out when it

peered right back at me in those results that Google would fetch.

When I retreated, that went away. “Yay,” I thought.

 

IMG_0483

 

As much as I was unafraid to write, there was always an unwillingness

to share with one or two individuals out there, who, for a lack of a better

way to put it, were d.o.d.g.y.  I’ll leave the details to your imagination.

 

As awful as that sounds, I’m in a good place in my life now where I refuse

to be chicken shit any longer, and thus am ‘reclaiming’ my name.

Boo you! I mean, them!

This is my new site, now in beta mode, to be fully operational in 

September. Was going to wait till then to write, but that just didn’t

seem logical, since I had been writing anyway.

 

So basically, Hello!

Selamat Datang ke Reincarnation Site I yang terbaru.

Unless I switch it up in the future to one of those cooler

.coms or.nets, I think this is it folks. Apologies for any inconvenience,

all will be explained in September.

 

I promise nothing but the nicest posts, and if you catch me 

doing otherwise, you’re most welcome to cuss the hell out of me.

And then I’ll track you down and destroy you in a round of 

lunch time karaoke.

Cause some things won’t change!

xo